Slot-cars race like real cars using Nordic 2.4GHz transceivers

Australian slot-car specialist, Scorpius Wireless, has developed what it claims is the world’s most technologically advanced slot-car racing platform that supports up to 24 cars on any number of lanes, pit-stops, virtual fuel tanks, adjustable brakes, automatic flag and timed penalties (e.g. for pit-stop lane speeding), PC-controlled race management, driverless ‘ghost’ cars to race against, and over-the-air product and firmware updates.

Oslo, Norway

2014/08/28

Ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA (OSE: NOD) today announces that Australian slot-car specialist, Scorpius Wireless, has specified Nordic nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz proprietary transceivers in their next series of production runs in what Scorpius claims is the world’s most realistic and advanced digital slot-car racing platform.

Called ‘Scorpius’, the platform supports up to 24 slot-cars and wireless throttle controllers on any number of lanes, lane changing and over-taking, pit-stops, virtual fuel tanks, adjustable brakes, automatic flag and timed penalties (e.g. pit-stop lane speeding or driving off while re-fueling), PC-controlled (via a USB wireless dongle) race management, driverless artificial intelligence (AI) ‘ghost’ cars to race against that can autonomously analyze track traffic ahead and change lanes, lap counting, and over-the-air firmware and software product updates and upgrades.

“We strive to imitate the realism of real motor-car racing with slot-cars,” says Rick Field, director, Scorpius Wireless. “In F1, Le Mans, and NASCAR the starting line will usually comprise 20 to 24 cars – which is why we went for 24 – and just as for real-world racing teams and racing we give our customers an enormous range of car, race, and track configurability options and choices to fine tune and experiment with.”

“The over-the-air updates feature is particularly popular with customers as every couple of months it allows us to offer a typically free racing product enhancement feature – such as the recently released ability to program a favourite race-line round a track – that they can download and install in seconds.”

Original article here: Slot-cars race like real cars using Nordic 2.4GHz transceivers